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Skirmishes between solar power supporters and electric utilities are intensifying, with standoffs in Iowa and Wisconsin attracting attention around the country.

Most recently, in a decision cheered by solar advocates, the Iowa Supreme Court on Friday rebuffed concerns raised by Iowa regulators and Madison-based Alliant Energy Corp., which argued that a solar company's move to install panels on the roof of a government building in Dubuque unfairly competed with Alliant's monopoly electric utility in Iowa.

The 4-2 court decision could trigger a surge of solar power projects in the Hawkeye State by companies that build and own solar panels and lease them to homeowners and small businesses.

The leasing trend helps reduce upfront costs to install solar panels and has spurred a wave of solar power growth in states that have allowed it.

In Wisconsin, Milwaukee-based We Energies proposed late last month to bar its customers from leasing solar panels. The company also sought to impose a new surcharge on customers that generate their own power.

Those proposals — filed a month after We Energies first introduced its rate plan for 2015 — are generating interest in what are generally arcane proceedings dominated by utilities and in-state consumer and green-energy advocates.

Solar companies say customers want to take control of their own energy future and want more cost certainty at a time of increasing regulation and cost for fossil fuels. Utilities, meanwhile, say they need to respond to the solar wave because the more power that their customers generate, the harder it is to spread the cost of everything that utilities provide on a daily basis across their customers.

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The Alliance for Solar Choice, a national coalition of solar power companies, called the We Energies solar surcharge proposal "unusual and unprecedented," and wants to offer its perspective on how solar power has been regulated in other states.

Likewise, the Environmental Law and Policy Center of Chicago is seeking to weigh in on both the We Energies and Madison Gas & Electric Co. rate cases, citing its experience in working on renewable energy and utility matters in other states.

"The proposals in Wisconsin right now are some of the most damaging to the growth of the solar industry and ones that we are most concerned about, of any place that we are working right now," said Brad Klein, a lawyer with the Chicago group.

Unlike MG&E, We Energies has taken the unusal step of objecing to the involvement of the out-of-state organizations, saying both requests reflect "inexcusable tardiness" and that neither organization has proper legal standing to get involved in a case affecting Wisconsin customers.

But the groups as well as the city of Milwaukee and Renew Wisconsin, say that customers and the PSC would benefit from allowing more public participation – and out-of-state perspectives – into the Wisconsin proceeding.

"There was no prior warning or notice from (We Energies) that such sweeping changes would be proposed," said Tyler Huebner, executive director of the advocacy group Renew Wisconsin.

The utility is raising objections to greater public involvement at a time when its parent company is about to seek approval from regulators in four states and two federal agencies for its proposed $9.1 billion acquisition of Chicago-based Integrys Energy Group Inc., said Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center.

Learner said he considered the We Energies objection "unusual, offensive and counter-productive."

Asked to respond, Brian Manthey, a We Energies spokesman, said the filings are part of the legal process in a rate case, "and nothing more should be read into it."

The case before the state Public Service Commission should involve Wisconsin-based groups that are already raising questions about issues including fixed charges and customer-generated solar power, he said.

Alliant Energy spokesman Foss said the Iowa court ruling on customer-generated solar power won't affect the company's Wisconsin utility customers. But lawyers for solar supporters say the case will be cited here and around the country.

"This (Iowa) decision is a victory for customer choice and represents a common sense policy that should be available everywhere," said Carl Siegrist, a Milwaukee area solar energy consultant.

"The old investor-owned utility monopoly model needs reexamination. The public supports more renewable energy and seems neutral on who provides it. This decision is good for our clean energy future."